DIRECTORATE GENERAL FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION (DGCI) OF BELGIUM

Luc Risch, Program Officer D31, Directorate General for International Cooperation

The Belgian Federal Development Aid Policy and the fishery sub-sector

Introduction

The Belgian Development Aid policy has always paid particular attention to fishery and aquaculture. The development of this subsector is supported by various interventions on different levels in the past as well as today. In the past decade several projects were supported through a direct bilateral cooperation (Burundi, Thailand, Surinam and the ongoing projects in Benin and Ivory Coast), through a multilateral cooperation (Kenya, SADC, CGIAR) and through an indirect bilateral cooperation (NGO, universities, scientific institutions).

However, the global Belgian policy with regard to development aid in general has drastically changed in the past years after a number of in-depth evaluations. There was a general feeling among the Belgian people and the politicians that the efficiency and the effectiveness of the Belgian aid were very low. Principal findings indicated the necessity to better concentrate the interventions as they were too scattered and to separate the policy-making tasks from the execution tasks.

In order to submit new proposals concerning fishery and fish culture correctly, it is important to understand the new procedures and financing channels. Therefore we think that it is more useful to give here a brief account on the reform of the Belgian Federal Development Aid rather than to enumerate the fishery and fish culture activities supported by Belgium during the last decade.

The Federal Law on International Cooperation of 25 May 1999

Based on the recommendations of the evaluations, the Belgian Federal Chamber of Representatives adopted on May 25, 1999 the Federal Law on the Belgian International Co-operation, including a number of major institutional and political reforms.

The law clearly describes the general objective of the international cooperation: "sustainable human development, to be achieved by means of poverty eradication, on the basis of a true partnership and with due observance of the criteria of development relevance". These criteria are (1) the strengthening of the institutional and managerial capacities; (2) the economical and social impact; (3) the technical and financial viability; (4) the operational efficiency; (5) attention for the equality between men and women; (6) respect for the protection or the safeguarding of the environment.

Moreover, interventions are limited to five major fields or sectors: (1) basic health services and reproductive sanitation; (2) education and training; (3) agriculture and food security; (4) basic infrastructures; (5) conflict prevention and society building.

Each intervention will be weighed against three transversal themes: (1) balanced equal rights and chances for men and women; (2) attention for the environment; (3) social economy.

Strategic papers describing more in detail the policy and priorities of each of the different fields and themes are being prepared at present. It will be important to take them into consideration in project proposals since they will be used as a basis for future financing. For instance, the strategic paper on environment clearly states the necessity to protect the mangrove environment, which could interfere with shrimp culture projects.

The direct bilateral partners of the Belgian cooperation are limited to 24 countries and one region (SADC) and only four of them were designated in the Asia-Pacific region by the Council of Ministers (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam). Each of those partners has to prepare a country strategic paper indicating their priorities in the selected fields for the next four years.

The multilateral partners of the Belgian co-operation are now limited to the European Union, the World Bank, 22 UN organizations, three intergovernmental organizations and one regional development bank. Each of those organizations prepares programmes for collaboration.

Example: FAO, being one of the selected international agencies, has at present two programmes in execution with DGIC: soil management and periurban agriculture. Besides, DGIC also contributes to the budgets of the databank HORTIVAR and of the repertory DIMITRA.

The indirect bilateral partners are the NGOs, the universities, the regional development agencies (VVOB, APEFE), scientific institutions (Institute for Tropical Medicine, Royal Museum for Central Africa) and other special programmes. Each of these organizations also submits a programme, harmonising their core activities with the requirements of the law. The selective number of countries does not apply to them.

The Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIC)

Another major difference with the past is found in the fact that the former BADC (Belgian Agency for Development Cooperation) is now included in the Federal Public Service (formerly known as Ministry) of Foreign Affairs, External Commerce and International Cooperation as a new Directorate-General (DGIC: Directorate-General of International Cooperation). The task of the DGIC is to focus on the development of the strategy, the policy-making and the evaluation of the international cooperation. The implementation of these programmes was handed over to the newly created BTC (a limited liability company under public law with a social objective) for direct bilateral programmes, to 28 international organizations for the multilateral programmes and to NGOs, universities and other institutions for the indirect cooperation programmes. In order to execute the Federal Law mentioned above, the DGIC is divided into 7 sections:

D00: General Services, Inspection and Financial Control
D10: Coordination, Geographical Desks and Statistics
D20: Strategies, Sector and Thematic Cells
D30: Indirect co-operation (NGOs, institutes)
D40: Multilateral Co-operation (UN, CGIAR, EU, WB)
D50: Emergency and Rehabilitation Aid
D60: Sensitisation and Information

The total budget for the year 2001 for the DGCI amounted to 567,542,916 EUR and the total budget spent by the Belgian Government on development aid (including regional expenditures, country-to-country loans and other public services in 2001 amounted to 968,429,658 EUR (Table 1).

Table 1: Development aid budget, 2001 (in EUR)

Role of the subsector fishery and aquaculture in DGCI's Policy

As a result of the reforms, DGCI does not take a specific position on the priority of a subsector anymore for they belong to one of the specific fields and fall within the scope of the strategic notes. Subsectors are considered as tools to deploy activities that eventually will give the necessary results in order to achieve the goal of the law on international co-operation.

However, valuable experiences from the past prove that small-scale fisheries and aquaculture play an important role in the local development of several regions. Therefore it is important that programmes including this subsector should be proposed for financing.

Different financing channels are possible

Partner countries of the direct bilateral cooperation: small-scale fishery and aquaculture are to be included in the country's strategic papers as a tool for poverty reduction, rural development and food security and specific projects are to be proposed during the Joint Commission meetings. The Ministry in charge and the attaché for International Co-operation of the Belgian Embassy prepare the identification of those projects. For instance, at present two rural aquaculture programmes are being executed by BTC, one in Benin and one in Côte d'Ivoire. An important project to improve the small-scale fishery harbours in Surinam has ended recently.

Multilateral organizations should also propose fishery and aquaculture activities in their programmes presented at DGIC. At present, Belgium participates in the UNEP fishery legislation programme and in the IFAD Mozambique fishery programme (through the Belgian Survival Fund). Those programmes are analysed by an Appreciation Committee of national and international experts. In a recent procedure, ICLARM's proposal amongst 36 others within the CGIAR group was not selected as one final three accepted proposals. Because the funds available were limited, it was not possible to accept more proposals. On the other hand, as a member of the CGIAR group, ICLARM receives an unrestricted core funding of 85,000 EUR annually. Belgium also participates in the GEF programme.

Fishery and aquaculture are also included in some of the more than 800 NGO-executed actions co-financed by DGIC. Through the universities, DGIC finances scientific projects (Bénin, Madagascar, Rwanda) as well as international courses (Master of Science in Aquaculture at the University of Ghent; Master of Science in Ecological Marine Management at the University of Antwerp; D.E.S in aquaculture at the Universities of Liège and Namur). Finally, DGIC partly finances the programme of the Royal Museum of Central Africa, which has a well-known fish research laboratory.

Conclusion

Small-scale fishery and aquaculture are valuable tools for poverty reduction, for rural development and for food security preservation in certain regions. In that context, the Belgian Government and DGIC are willing to co-finance activities in those fields. However, the actions have to be presented through the correct channels (programmes of local governments, recognised organizations, etc.) and take into account the objective and the criteria for development relevance described in the Law of International Cooperation. Furthermore, as the strategic papers for thematic and sectoral approach will be available in the near future, the proposals should also take into account their recommendations (for instance, the strategic paper on environment will include mangrove protection, sea life protection and sustainable freshwater management).

Finally, I would like to add a more personal point of view concerning the position of aquaculture. In many countries, aquaculture does not belong to the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture, but often to the Ministry of Fisheries or the Ministry of Environment, although the basic concept of fish rearing is in most cases identical to the rearing of other animals. Farmers rear fish. But, in terms of rural development and food security, it is the Ministry of Agriculture, which is often the privileged partner of DGIC. Hence, fish culture is not always presented as a valuable development alternative.

Furthermore fish culture is often considered or presented as a minor activity: in countries with an extended sea fishery, the annual turnover of fish culture is minimal compared to that of the fishery, although in some parts of those countries, the quantity of fish reared in ponds is more important than the meat production. Moreover, because of the rather negative image of the fishery sector in the media (over-fishing, heavy metal contaminations), particularly in Europe, donors may be reluctant to invest in that particular sector.